Tuesday, September 16, 2014

The Contradictions Of Voter ID Laws And Obamacare

The latest headlines about the travails of Obamacare concern the fact that hundreds of thousands of people will lose their newly acquired government healthcare insurance because they are unable to prove their eligibility by producing paperwork showing their citizenship or residence in this country. These undocumented insurance recipients will likely lose their plans or have to pay back to the IRS the subsidies they have been getting from the government to buy into the program.

I can't help but contrast this aggressive bureaucracy with the controversy surrounding voter ID laws. These laws were enacted to make sure that people who want to vote in elections can prove that they are really who they are and where they live. Yet this simple requirement has been struck down by liberal courts all over the country.

I find it difficult to believe that people can be so isolated from society that they can't produce one single piece of paper to prove their identity. You need a photo ID to do almost anything these days. Use a credit card? Show me your ID. Want to buy that six pack of Bud along with that carton of Marlboro's? Show me your ID. You want to receive free government handouts? ID please.

Ironically these special interests who want to allow virtually anybody to vote without identification are the same ones who endorsed Obamacare in the first place. Are they going to abolish this requirement for proof of identification to receive health insurance? Unlikely because they know that massive fraud will ensue and billions of tax payer dollars will be lost to people who are not supposed to receive this largesse.

Yet these same groups have no qualms of possible massive voter fraud, which is arguably more important than Obamacare itself. The outcome of elections determines whether legislation like the Affordable Care Act gets passed in the first place. When the political make up of the government can be decided by fewer than one percent of voters in close elections, it's unfathomable that we don't guard more closely this right that was won by the blood of our country's ancestors. If guarding the integrity of Obamacare is paramount, the least we could do to honor our forefathers is to do the same for our constitutional right to free and fair elections.